Chapter Seventeen

1. Chapter Seventeen The Communications Mix: Personal Selling

2. Emphasis on Personal Selling • Direct interaction between a seller and prospective buyer to make a sale • Used by organizations when: • Customer needs assistance, demonstration, and trial • Price is negotiated • Distribution channels are short and training is needed • Advertising media does not saturate all necessary areas • The market perceives selling as a part of the product

3. Emphasis on Personal Selling (cont.) • Advantages • Makes services more tangible • Tailored solutions can be offered • Matching buyers to sellers means money may be better spent • Can reduce risk and persuade buyer to purchase • Permits direct feedback from the customer • Opportunity for relationship marketing

4. The Sales Process • Prospecting • Qualifying prospects • The sales approach • Handling objections • Closing of the sale • Follow-up

5. The Sales Approach • Communicating with customers • More important with supply exceeding demand • Good salespeople are problem solvers • Establishing long-term relationships with interdependence

8. The Sales Approach (cont.) • What to sell • Need versus opportunity • Probing • Open probes • Closed probes • Benefits and features • Match benefits to customer needs • Customers buy benefits, not features

9. The Sales Approach (cont.) • Customer attitudes: • Skepticism • Misunderstanding • Indifference • Probe for unrealized needs • Objection • Usually cannot be changed • Outweigh or offer an alternative

11. The Sales Approach (cont.) • Closing • Follow-up

12. Sales Management • Integrating skills on the sales force • May be a gap between good sales skills and good management skills • Account management The sales equation: Past Customers + New Customers = Goals

13. Sales Management (cont.) • Organization of sales team • Staffing should be based on total number of projected sales calls • Organized by: • Geographic territory • Market type • Account • Product line

14. Sales Management (cont.) • Product line management in hotels • One representative services all three products: • Group • Transient • Catering

15. Development of Personnel • Critical to the firm’s success • Begins with recruitment and training • Business is lost if salespeople are lost • “Move up and out” philosophy

17. Unethical practices in personal selling The Salesperson’s Company: Misrepresentation of call reports Misrepresentation of expense accounts Use of company assets for personal benefit Conflict-of-interest situations Disclosure of proprietary company information Disparagement of the company The Salesperson’s Customers and Prospects: Misrepresentation of yourself Misrepresentation of your company Misrepresentation of your products or services Use of high-pressure selling tactics Inappropriate gift-giving Disclosure of proprietary customer information The Salesperson’s Competitors: Disparagement of a competitor’s company Disparagement of a competitor’s product or service Disparagement of a competitor’s sales representative Development of Personnel (cont.)

18. Development of Personnel (cont.) • Motivation • Need to be consistently motivated • Represent products daily • Pay tied to productivity or quotas

19. Sales and Operations • “Sales sells and operations provide” • Communication critical to effective marketing • Problems with sales: • Operation’s perception of a “cush” job • No direct authority over operations • Sales should communicate to confirm capabilities to meet customer needs